Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Armed EPA Agents Visit Ashville Man

EPA headquarters in Washington, DC

By Alan Caruba

Sometimes a small incident says volumes about a large government agency. In this case the Environmental Protection Agency.

Around 1.45 PM on May 23, Ashville, North Carolina resident Larry Keller was in the midst of an international call which he had to cut short in order to answer his front door. He found two armed agents of the EPA who were accompanied by an Ashville Police officer.

According to a May 24 news story in the Ashville Tribune, a weekly newspaper to which I am a contributing columnist, the agents had blocked his and his neighbor’s driveways with their cars. They had driven all the way from Raleigh to confront him.

What had he done? The unannounced visit had been occasioned by news that Dr. Al Armendariz, a regional EPA administrator whose 2010 lecture had been videotaped and been released by the office of Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) on April 25th. In the lecture, Dr. Amendariz had said that the agency’s “general philosophy” was to “crucify” oil and gas producers.

He compared the agency’s “philosophy of enforcement” to the way, as a Wall Street Journal editorial reported, “Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. “They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they would crucify them, And then you know that town was really easy to manage for the next few years. The point is to ‘make examples’ of alleged lawbreakers.”

The case in point had been Range Resources, a driller who had been exonerated of charges of water pollution as the result of fracking. As the Wall Street Journal noted, the reference to executions “raise(d) questions not only about” not only Dr. Arnendariz’s comments “but the EPA’s larger impartiality and judgment.”

Keller, who describes himself as “a bit of a political activist” had emailed the EPA Director of External Affairs, Dr. David Gray, saying “Hello Mr. Gray. Do you have Mr. Armendariz’s contact information so we can say hello?”

That was enough to dispatch two armed agents to his front door. He was told by one agent that “…my choice of words in the email could be interpreted in many ways.” They did not identify themselves, but asked if he had ever been arrested. He responded swiftly that he had not. When he asked for a copy of his email, they refused to provide it because “the case was still under investigation.”

His wife arrived home and the agents did not want a witness so “They left in a big hurry.”

The Ashville Tribune by Catherine Hunter quoted Keller who described their attitude as "accusatory" reporting that he compared "their tactics to those of Nazi Germany SS methods.”

Keller contacted the agent’s supervisor, Michael Hill, and was told that the incident with Dr. Armendariz “had prompted so many emails and calls that authorities in Washington, DC ordered an investigation.”

Keller’s email inquiry to contact Dr. Armendariz was treated as a threat when it clearly was not. Since when is trying to contact an EPA administrator a crime?

“I want the world to know,” said Keller, “the government is reaching into the privacy of our homes and computers. I’ve never been so offended by the power of government in my life.”

Do we really want an EPA that uses such tactics against a citizen who has merely indicated an interest in contacting one of their administrators to comment on what he had said during a lecture?

Do we really want an EPA whose working “philosophy” regarding the oil and gas industry is to “crucify” it in order to regulate it and, as we know, is trying to thwart drilling, as well as to end the coal industry that provides an energy resource that produces one half of all the electricity in the nation?

It is, as noted, just one small incident, but it reflects the way the EPA functions in a presumably free society. Over the years I have read of many incidents in which the EPA has asserted powers to impede the most innocent actions of citizens and it is long past the time when this agency is reined in by Congress.

The only option at this point is to rid the nation of the Obama administration, crack down on the EPA, and rid us of the threat it poses in its efforts to deny entire industries from providing the energy the nation requires and attacks our agricultural and ranching communities for practices that reflect its normal operation.

As they used to advertise horror films, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.” An EPA that operates on the basis of intimidating its chosen enemies and that seeks to intimidate citizens inquiring about it, is reason enough to be afraid.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

9 comments:

denimflyz said...

I was listening to our local radio station this morning, and they were talking that the EPA is flying over Nebraska for unknown reasons. It has not been explained as to why they are flying our state and not disclosing what they are looking for.
Lots of questions?

TexasFred said...

Stupid incidents from an even more stupid government, and there is only one way to combat that stupidity... FIGHT THE BASTARDS...

First Amendment, it's OURS, use it, long, loud and often...

They can't arrest ALL of us, and some of WILL NOT be arrested over FREE political speech on our blogs!

Ronbo said...

ARMED EPA AGENTS?

The Feds must be getting very, very worried if they are arming their bureaucrats.

Rich Kozlovich said...

Alan,

Dr. Jay Lehr is a friend of mine and one of the top voices who helped create the EPA. He says he goes around speaking now to make amends for it because this is not what EPA was intended to be and he believes it mostly can be eliminated and their functiional duties can be transferred to the states. One thing is for sure. They were not supposed to be the FBI. Although, with all the authority granted to them by the courts I can't see how this could have turned out any differently since there are so few in Congress with the courage to stand up to the greenies.

Rich K.

Alan Caruba said...

They have been doing overflights for a long time to find things to ensnare farmers, ranchers, and others with alleged violations and then to fine them. They are judge, jury and executioner. They need to be disestablished.

Ronbo said...

@Alan:

I did a C&P of the picture and first three paragraphs of your article on my blog with the link back to you - I hope this okay.

Jasen T. Davis said...

Every government agency is like that now. Whenever I think about America, I think of the country and the government. One is the real America, the other is a creature that has become a parasite that is killing it's host.

If the Founding Fathers were here, they would not be amused.

Ali said...

Interesting. Armendariz received many death threats and had to go to Dallas police because he had no Federal protection after his resignation. I didn't see you write anything about the death threats.

A month later, the EPA Criminal Investigation Division is looking into an email this gentleman sent to an EPA official and oh oh ... his first amendment rights are violated? Fair and Balanced my friend. Just like Fox News.

Alan Caruba said...

@Ali. What is the EPA doing with its own criminal investigation division? Don't we have the FBI and US Marshal service for such things?

I had not heard that Dr. A had received death threats. I took my facts from the Ashville Tribune story because that's what the commentary was about. I fail to see how Dr. A's first amendment rights were violated...except that he got caught saying some very bad things, i.e., the truth about the EPA.